A Sermon (No. 1735)
Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, August 19th, 1883, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At Exeter-Hall.

"For sin shall not
have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under
grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law,
but under grace? God forbid."--Romans 6:14, 15.

Last Sabbath morning I
tried to show that the substance and essence of the true gospel
is the doctrine of God's grace--that, in fact, if you take away
the grace of God from the gospel you have extracted from it its
very life-blood, and there is nothing left worth preaching, worth
believing, or worth contending for. Grace is the soul of the
gospel: without it the gospel is dead. Grace is the music of the
gospel: without it the gospel is silent as to all comfort. I
endeavoured also to set forth the doctrine of grace in brief
terms, teaching that God deals with sinful men upon the footing
of pure mercy: finding them guilty and condemned, he gives free
pardons, altogether irrespective of past character, or of any
good works which may be foreseen. Moved only by pity he devises a
plan for their rescue from sin and its consequences--a plan in
which grace is the leading feature. Out of free favour he has
provided, in the death of his dear Son, an atonement by means of
which his mercy can be justly bestowed. He accepts all those who
place their trust in this atonement, selecting faith as the way
of salvation, that it may be all of grace. In this he acts, from
a motive found within himself, and not because of any reason
found in the sinner's conduct, past, present, or future. I tried
to show that this grace of God flows towards the sinner from of
old, and begins its operations upon him when there is nothing
good in him: it works in him that which is good and acceptable,
and continues so to work in him till the deed of grace is
complete, and the believer is received up into the glory for
which he is made meet. Grace commences to save, and it perseveres
till all is done. From first to last, from the "A" to
the "Z" of the heavenly alphabet, everything in
salvation is of grace, and grace alone; all is of free favour,
nothing of merit. "By grace are ye saved through faith; and
that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God," "So
then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that sheweth mercy."

No sooner is this doctrine
set forth in a clear light than men begin to cavil at it. It is
the target for all carnal logic to shoot at. Unrenewed minds
never did like it, and they never will; it is so humbling to
human pride, making so light of the nobility of human nature.
That men are to be saved by divine charity, that they must as
condemned criminals receive pardon by the exercise of the royal
prerogative, or else perish in their sins, is a teaching which
they cannot endure. God alone is exalted in the sovereignty of
his mercy; and the sinner can do no better than meekly touch the
silver scepter, and accept undeserved favour just because God
wills to give it:--this is not pleasant to the great minds of our
philosophers, and the broad phylacteries of our moralists, and
therefore they turn aside, and fight against the empire of grace.
Straightway the unrenewed man seeks out artillery with which to
fight against the gospel of the grace of God, and one of the
biggest guns he has ever brought to the front is the declaration
that the doctrine of the grace of God must lead to
licentiousness. If great sinners are freely saved, then men will
more readily become great sinners; and if when God's grace
regenerates a man it abides with him, then men will infer that
they may live as they like, and yet be saved. This is the
constantly-repeated objection which I have heard till it wearies
me with its vain and false noise. I am almost ashamed to have to
refute so rotten an argument. They dare to assert that men will
take license to be guilty because God is gracious, and they do
not hesitate to say that if men are not to be saved by their
works they will come to the conclusion that their conduct is a
matter of indifference, and that they may as well sin that grace
may abound.

This morning I want to talk
a little about this notion; for in part it is a great mistake,
and in part it is a great lie. In part it is a mistake because it
arises from misconception, and in part it is a lie because men
know better, or might know better if they pleased.

I begin by admitting that
the charge does appear somewhat probable. It does seem very
likely that if we are to go up and down the country, and say,
"The very chief of sinners may be forgiven through believing
in Jesus Christ, for God is displaying mercy to the very vilest
of the vile," then sin will seem to be a cheap thing. If we
are everywhere to cry, "Come, ye sinners, come and welcome,
and receive free and immediate pardon through the sovereign grace
of God," it does seem probable that some may basely reply,
"Let us sin without stint, for we can easily obtain
forgiveness." But that which looks to be probable is not,
therefore, certain: on the contrary, the improbable and the
unexpected full often come to pass. In questions of moral
influence nothing is more deceptive than theory. The ways of the
human mind are not to be laid down with a pencil and compasses;
man is a singular being. Even that which is logical is not always
inevitable, for men's minds are not governed by the rules of the
schools. I believe that the inference which would lead men to sin
because grace reigns is not logical, but the very reverse; and I
venture to assert that, as a matter of fact, ungodly men do not,
as a rule plead the grace of God as an excuse for their sin. As a
rule they are too indifferent to care about reasons at all; and
if they do offer an excuse it is usually more flimsy and
superficial. There may be a few men of perverse minds who have
used this argument, but there is no accounting for the freaks of
the fallen understanding. I shrewdly suspect that in any cases in
which such reasoning has been put forward it was a mere pretence,
and by no means a plea which satisfied the sinner's own
conscience. If men do thus excuse themselves, it is generally in
some veiled manner, for the most of them would be utterly ashamed
to state the argument in plain terms. I question whether the
devil himself would be found reasoning thus--"God is
merciful, therefore let us be more sinful." It is so
diabolical an inference, that I do not like to charge my
fellow-men with it, though our moralist opposers do not hesitate
thus to degrade them. Surely, no intelligent being can really
persuade itself that the goodness of God is a reason for
offending him more than ever. Moral insanity produces strange
reasonings, but it is my solemn conviction that very rarely do
men practically consider the grace of God to be a motive for sin.
That which seems so probable at the first blush, is not so when
we come to consider it.

I have admitted that a few
human beings have turned the grace of God into lasciviousness;
but I trust no one will ever argue against any doctrine on
account of the perverse use made of it by the baser sort. Cannot
every truth be perverted? Is there a single doctrine of Scripture
which graceless hands have not twisted into mischief? Is there
not an almost infinite ingenuity in wicked men for making evil
out of good? If we are to condemn a truth because of the
misbehaviour of individuals who profess to believe it, we should
be found condemning our Lord himself for what Judas did, and our
holy faith would die at the hands of apostates and hypocrites.
Let us act like rational men. We do not find fault with ropes
because poor insane creatures have hanged themselves therewith;
nor do we ask that the wares of Sheffield may be destroyed
because edged tools are the murderer's instruments.

It may appear probable that
the doctrine of free grace will be made into a license for sin,
but a better acquaintance with the curious working of the human
mind corrects the notion. Fallen as human nature is, it is still
human, and therefore does not take kindly to certain forms of
evil--such, for instance, as inhuman ingratitude. It is hardly
human to multiply injuries upon those who return us continued
benefits. The case reminds me of the story of half-a-dozen boys
who had severe fathers, accustomed to flog them within an inch of
their lives. Another boy was with them who was tenderly beloved
by his parents, and known to do so. These young gentlemen met
together to hold a council of war about robbing an orchard. They
were all of them anxious to get about it except the favoured
youth, who did not enjoy the proposal. One of them cried out,
"You need not be afraid: if our fathers catch us at this
work, we shall be half-killed, but your father won't lay a hand
upon you." The little boy answered, "And do you think
because my father is kind to me, that therefore I will do wrong
and grieve him? I will do nothing of the sort to my dear father.
He is so good to me that I cannot vex him." It would appear
that the argument of the many boys was not overpoweringly
convincing to their companion: the opposite conclusion was quite
as logical, and evidently carried weight with it. If God is good
to the undeserving, some men will go into sin, but there are
others of a nobler order whom the goodness of God leadeth to
repentance. They scorn the beast-like argument--that the more
loving God is, the more rebellious we may be; and they feel that
against a God of goodness it is an evil thing to rebel.

By-the-way I cannot help
observing that I have known persons object to the evil influence
of the doctrines of grace who were by no means qualified by their
own morality to be judges of the subject. Morals must be in a
poor way when immoral persons become their guardians. The
doctrine of justification by faith is frequently objected to as
injurious to morals. A newspaper some time ago quoted a verse
from one of our popular hymns--

"Till to Jesus' work
you cling
By a simple faith,
'Doing' is a deadly thing,
'Doing' ends in death."

This is styled mischievous
teaching. When I read the article I felt a deep interest in this
corrector of Luther and Paul, and I wondered how much he had
drunk in order to elevate his mind to such a pitch of theological
knowledge. I have found men pleading against the doctrines of
grace on the ground that they did not promote morality, to whom I
could have justly replied, "What has morality to do with
you, or you with it?" These sticklers for good works are not
often the doers of them. Let legalists look to their own hands
and tongues, and leave the gospel of grace and its advocates to
answer for themselves.

Looking back in history, I
see upon its pages a refutation of the oft-repeated calumny. Who
dares to suggest that the men who believed in the grace of God
have been sinners above other sinners? With all their faults,
those who throw stones at them will be few if they first prove
themselves to be their superiors in character. When have they
been the patrons of vice, or the defenders of injustice? Pitch
upon the point in English history when this doctrine was very
strong in the land; who were the men that held these doctrines
most firmly? Men like Owen, Charnock, Manton, Howe, and I
hesitate not to add Oliver Cromwell. What kind of men were these?
Did they pander to the licentiousness of a court? Did they invent
a Book of Sports for Sabbath diversion? Did they haunt ale-houses
and places of revelry? Every historian will tell you, the
greatest fault of these men in the eyes of their enemies was that
they were too precise for the generation in which they lived, so
that they called them Puritans, and condemned them as holding a
gloomy theology. Sirs, if there was iniquity in the land in that
day, it was to be found with the theological party which preached
up salvation by works. The gentlemen with their womanish locks
and essenced hair, whose speech savoured of profanity, were the
advocates of salvation by works, and all bedabbled with lust they
pleaded for human merit; but the men who believed in grace alone
were of another style. They were not in the chambers of rioting
and wantonness; where were they? They might be found on their
knees crying to God for help in temptation; and in persecuting
times they might be found in prison, cheerfully suffering the
loss of all things for the truth's sake. The Puritans were the
godliest men on the face of the earth. Are men so inconsistent as
to nickname them for their purity, and yet say that their
doctrines lead to sin?

Nor is this a solitary
instance--this instance of Puritanism; all history confirms the
rule: and when it is said that these doctrines will create sin, I
appeal to facts, and leave the oracle to answer as it may. If we
are ever to see a pure and godly England we must have a
gospelized England: if we are to put down drunkenness and the
social evil it must be by the proclamation of the grace of God.
Men must be forgiven by grace, renewed by grace, transformed by
grace, sanctified by grace, preserved by grace; and when that
comes to pass the golden age will dawn; but while they are merely
taught their duty, and left to do it of themselves in their own
strength, it is labour in vain. You may flog a dead horse a long
while before it will stir: you need to put life into it, for else
all your flogging will fail. To teach men to walk who have no
feet is poor work, and such is instruction in morals before grace
gives a heart to love holiness. The gospel alone supplies men
with motive and strength, and therefore it is to the gospel that
we must look as the real reformer of men.

I shall fight this morning
with the objection before us as I shall find strength. The
doctrine of grace, the whole plan of salvation by grace, is most
promotive of holiness. Wherever it comes it helps us to say,
"God forbid," to the question, "Shall we sin,
because we are not under the law, but under grace?" This I
would set out in the clear sunlight.

I wish to call your
attention to some six or seven points.

I. First, you will see that
the gospel of the grace of God promotes real holiness in men by
remembering that THE SALVATION WHICH IT BRINGS IS SALVATION FROM
THE POWER OF SIN. When we preach salvation to the vilest of men,
some suppose we mean by that a mere deliverance from hell and an
entrance into heaven. It includes all that, and results in that,
but that is not what we mean. What we mean by salvation is
this--deliverance from the love of sin, rescue from the habit of
sin, setting free from the desire to sin. Now listen. If it be
so, that that boon of deliverance from sin is the gift of divine
grace, in what way will that gift, or the free distribution of
it, produce sin? I fail to see any such danger. On the contrary,
I say to the man who proclaims a gracious promise of victory over
sin, "Make all speed: go up and down throughout the world,
and tell the vilest of mankind that God is willing by his grace
to set them free from the love of sin and to make new creatures
of them." Suppose the salvation we preach be this:--you that
have lived ungodly and wicked lives may enjoy your sins, and yet
escape the penalty--that would be mischievous indeed; but if it
be this,--you that live the most ungodly and wicked lives may yet
by believing in the Lord Jesus be enabled to change those lives,
so that you shall live unto God instead of serving sin and
Satan,--what harm can come to the most prudish morals? Why, I say
spread such a gospel, and let it circulate through every part of
our vast empire, and let all men hear it, whether they rule in
the House of Lords or suffer in the house of bondage. Tell them
everywhere that God freely and of infinite grace is willing to
renew men, and make them new creatures in Christ Jesus. Can any
evil consequences come of the freest proclamation of this news?
The worse men are, the more gladly would we see them embracing
this truth, for these are they who most need it. I say to every
one of you, whoever you may be, whatever your past condition, God
can renew you according to the power of his grace; so that you
who are to him like dead, dry bones, can be made to live by his
Spirit. That renewal will be seen in holy thoughts, and pure
words, and righteous acts to the glory of God. In great love he
is prepared to work all these things in all who believe. Why
should any men be angry at such a statement? What possible harm
can come of it? I defy the most cunning adversary to object, upon
the ground of morals, to God's giving men new hearts and right
spirits even as he pleases.

II. Secondly, let it not be
forgotten as a matter of fact that THE PRINCIPLE OF LOVE HAS BEEN
FOUND TO POSSESS VERY GREAT POWER OVER MEN. In the infancy of
history nations dream that crime can be put down by severity, and
they rely upon fierce punishments; but experience corrects the
error. Our forefathers dreaded forgery, which is a troublesome
fraud, and interferes with the confidence which should exist
between man and man. To put it down they made forgery a capital
offence. Alas for the murders committed by that law! Yet the
constant use of the gallows was never sufficient to stamp out the
crime. Many offences have been created and multiplied by the
penalty which was meant to suppress them. Some offences have
almost ceased when the penalty against them has been lightened.

It is a notable fact as to
men, that if they are forbidden to do a thing they straightway
pine to do it, though they had never thought of doing it before.
Law commands obedience, but does not promote it; it often creates
disobedience, and an over-weighted penalty has been known to
provoke an offence. Law fails, but love wins.

Love in any case makes sin
infamous. If one should rob another it would be sufficiently bad;
but suppose a man robbed his friend, who had helped him often
when he was in need, everyone would say that his crime was most
disgraceful. Love brands sin on the forehead with a red-hot iron.
If a man should kill an enemy, the offence would be grievous; but
if he slew his father, to whom he owes his life, or his mother,
on whose breasts he was nursed in infancy, then all would cry out
against the monster. In the light of love sin is seen to be
exceeding sinful.

Nor is this all. Love has a
great constraining power towards the highest form of virtue.
Deeds to which a man could not be compelled on the ground of law,
men have cheerfully done because of love. Would our brave seamen
man the life-boat to obey an Act of Parliament? No, they would
indignantly revolt against being forced to risk their lives; but
they will do it freely to save their fellow-men. Remember that
text of the apostle, "Scarcely for a righteous (or merely
just) man will one die: yet peradventure," says he,
"for a good (benevolent) man some would even dare to
die." Goodness wins the heart, and one is ready to die for
the kind and generous. Look how men have thrown away their lives
for great leaders. That was an immortal saying of the wounded
French soldier. When searching for the bullet the surgeon cut
deeply, and the patient cried out, "A little lower and you
will touch the Emperor," meaning that the Emperor's name was
written on his heart. In several notable instances men have
thrown themselves into the jaws of death to save a leader whom
they loved. Duty holds the fort, but love casts its body in the
way of the deadly bullet. Who would think of sacrificing his life
on the ground of law? Love alone counts not life so dear as the
service of the beloved. Love to Jesus creates a heroism of which
law knows nothing. All the history of the church of Christ, when
it has been true to its Lord, is a proof of this.

Kindness also, working by
the law of love, has often changed the most unworthy, and therein
proved that it is not a factor of evil. We have often heard the
story of the soldier who had been degraded to the ranks, and
flogged and imprisoned, and yet for all that he would get drunk
and misbehave himself. The commanding officer said one day,
"I have tried almost everything with this man, and can do
nothing with him. I will try one thing more." When he was
brought in, the officer addressed him, and said, "You seem
incorrigible: we have tried everything with you; there seems to
be no hope of a change in your wicked conduct. I am determined to
try if another plan will have any effect. Though you deserve
flogging and long imprisonment, I shall freely forgive you."
The man was greatly moved by the unexpected and undeserved
pardon, and became a good soldier. The story wears truth on its
brow: we all see that it would probably end so.

That anecdote is such good
argument that I will give you another. A drunkard woke up one
morning from his drunken sleep, with his clothes on him just as
he had rolled down the night before. He saw his only child, his
daughter Millie, getting his breakfast. Coming to his senses he
said to her, "Millie, why do you stay with me?" She
answered, "Because you are my father, and because I love
you." He looked at himself, and saw what a sottish, ragged,
good-for-nothing creature he was, and he answered her,
"Millie, do you really love me?" The child cried,
"Yes, father, I do, and I will never leave you, because when
mother died she said, 'Millie, stick to your father, and always
pray for him, and one of these days he will give up drink, and be
a good father to you'; so I will never leave you." Is it
wonderful when I add that, as the story has it, Millie's father
cast away his drink, and became a Christian man? It would have
been more remarkable if he had not. Millie was trying free grace,
was she not? According to our moralists she should have said,
"Father, you are a horrible wretch! I have stuck to you long
enough: I must now leave you, or else I shall be encouraging
other fathers to get drunk." Under such proper dealing I
fear Millie's father would have continued a drunkard till he
drank himself into perdition. But the power of love made a better
man of him. Do not these instances prove that undeserved love has
a great influence for good?

Hear another story: In the
old persecuting times there lived in Cheapside one who feared God
and attended the secret meetings of the saints; and near him
there dwelt a poor cobbler, whose wants were often relieved by
the merchant; but the poor man was a cross-grained being, and,
most ungratefully, from hope of reward, laid an information
against his kind friend on the score of religion. This accusation
would have brought the merchant to death by burning if he had not
found a means of escape. Returning to his house, the injured man
did not change his generous behaviour to the malignant cobbler,
but, on the contrary, was more liberal than ever. The cobbler
was, however, in an ill mood, and avoided the good man with all
his might, running away at his approach. One day he was obliged
to meet him face to face, and the Christian man asked him gently,
"Why do you shun me? I am not your enemy. I know all that
you did to injure me, but I never had an angry thought against
you. I have helped you, and I am willing to do so as long as I
live, only let us be friends." Do you marvel that they
clasped hands? Would you wonder if ere long the poor man was
found at the Lollards' meeting? All such anecdotes rest upon the
assured fact that grace has a strange subduing power, and leads
men to goodness, drawing them with cords of love, and bands of a
man. The Lord knows that bad as men are the key of their hearts
hangs on the nail of love. He knows that his almighty goodness,
though often baffled, will triumph in the end. I believe my point
is proved. To myself it is so. However, we must pass on.

III. There is no fear that
the doctrine of the grace of God will lead men to sin, because
ITS OPERATIONS ARE CONNECTED WITH A SPECIAL REVELATION OF THE
EVIL OF SIN. Iniquity is made to be exceeding bitter before it is
forgiven or when it is forgiven. When God begins to deal with a
man with a view of blotting out his sins and making him his
child, he usually causes him to see his evil ways in all their
heinousness; he makes him look on sin with fixed eyes, till he
cries with David, "My sin is ever before me." In my own
case, when under conviction of sin, no cheering object met my
mental eye, my soul saw only darkness and a horrible tempest. It
seemed as though a horrible spot were painted on my eyeballs.
Guilt, like a grim chamberlain, drew the curtains of my bed, so
that I rested not, but in my slumbers anticipated the wrath to
come. I felt that I had offended God, and that this was the most
awful thing a human being could do. I was out of order with my
Creator, out of order with the universe; I had damned myself for
ever, and I wondered that I did not immediately feel the gnawing
of the undying worm. Even to this hour a sight of sin causes the
most dreadful emotions in my heart. Any man or woman here who has
passed through that experience, or anything like it, will
henceforth feel a deep horror of sin. A burnt child dreads the
fire. "No," says the sinner to his tempter, "you
once deceived me, and I so smarted in consequence, that I will
not again be deluded. I have been delivered, like a brand from
the burning, and I cannot go back to the fire." By the
operations of grace we are made weary of sin; we loathe both it
and its imaginary pleasures. We would utterly exterminate it from
the soil of our nature. It is a thing accursed, even as Amalek
was to Israel. If you, my friend, do not detest every sinful
thing, I fear you are still in the gall of bitterness; for one of
the sure fruits of the Spirit is a love of holiness, and a
loathing of every false way. A deep inward experience forbids the
child of God to sin: he has known within himself its judgment and
its condemnation, and henceforth it is a thing abhorrent to him.
An enmity both fierce and endless exists between the chosen seed
and the serpent brood of evil: hence the fear that grace will be
abused is abundantly safeguarded.

IV. Remember also that not
only is the forgiven man thus set against sin by the process of
conviction, but EVERY MAN WHO TASTES OF THE SAVING GRACE OF GOD
IS MADE A NEW CREATURE IN CHRIST JESUS. Now if the doctrine of
grace in the hands of an ordinary man might be dangerous, yet it
would cease to be so in the hands of one who is quickened by the
Spirit, and created anew in the image of God. The Holy Spirit
comes upon the chosen one, and transforms him: his ignorance is
removed, his affections are changed, his understanding is
enlightened, his will is subdued, his desires are refined, his
life is changed--in fact, he is as one new-born, to whom all
things have become new. This change is compared in Scripture to
the resurrection from the dead, to a creation, and to a new
birth. This takes place in every man who becomes a partaker of
the free grace of God. "Ye must be born again," said
Christ to Nicodemus; and gracious men are born again. One said
the other day, "If I believed that I was eternally saved, I
should live in sin." Perhaps you would; but if you were
renewed in heart you would not. "But," says one,
"if I believed God loved me from before the foundation of
the world, and that therefore I should be saved, I would take a
full swing of sin." Perhaps you and the devil would; but
God's regenerate children are not of so base a nature. To them
the abounding grace of the Father is a bond to righteousness
which they never think of breaking: they feel the sweet
constraints of sacred gratitude, and desire to perfect holiness
in the fear of the Lord. All beings live according to their
nature, and the regenerated man works out the holy instincts of
his renewed mind: crying after holiness, warring against sin,
labouring to be pure in all things, the regenerate man puts forth
all his strength towards that which is pure and perfect. A new
heart makes all the difference. Given a new nature, and then all
the propensities run in a different way, and the blessings of
almighty love no longer involve peril, but suggest the loftiest
aspirations.

V. One of the chief
securities for the holiness of the pardoned is found in the way
of CLEANSING THROUGH ATONEMENT. The blood of Jesus sanctifies as
well as pardons. The sinner learns that his free pardon cost the
life of his best Friend; that in order to his salvation the Son
of God himself agonized even to a bloody sweat, and died forsaken
of his God. This causes a sacred mourning for sin, as he looks
upon the Lord whom he pierced. Love to Jesus burns within the
pardoned sinner's breast, for the Lord is his Redeemer; and
therefore he feels a burning indignation against the murderous
evil of sin. To him all manner of evil is detestable, since it is
stained with the Saviour's heart's blood. As the penitent sinner
hears the cry of, "Eloi, sabachthani!" he is horrified
to think that one so pure and good should be forsaken of heaven
because of the sin which he bore in his people's stead. From the
death of Jesus the mind draws the conclusion that sin is
exceedingly sinful in the sight of the Lord; for if eternal
justice would not spare even the Well-beloved Jesus when imputed
sin was upon him, how much less will it spare guilty men? It must
be a thing unutterably full of poison which could make even the
immaculate Jesus suffer so terribly. Nothing can be imagined
which can have greater power over gracious minds than the vision
of a crucified Saviour denouncing sin by all his wounds, and by
every falling drop of blood. What! live in the sin which slew
Jesus? Find pleasure in that which wrought his death? Trifle with
that which laid his glory in the dust? Impossible! Thus you see
that the gifts of free grace, when handed down by a pierced hand,
are never likely to suggest self-indulgence in sin, but the very
reverse.

VI. Sixthly, a man who
becomes a partaker of divine grace, and receives the new nature,
is ever afterwards A PARTAKER OF DAILY HELPS FROM GOD'S HOLY
SPIRIT. God the Holy Ghost deigns to dwell in the bosom, of every
man whom God has saved by his grace. Is not that a wonderful
means of sanctifying? By what process can men be better kept from
sin than by having the Holy Spirit himself to dwell as
Vice-regent within their hearts? The Ever- blessed Spirit leads
believers to be much in prayer, and what a power for holiness is
found in the child of grace speaking to the heavenly Father! The
tempted man flies to his chamber, unbosoms his grief to God,
looks to the flowing wounds of his Redeemer, and comes down
strong to resist temptation. The divine word also, with its
precepts and promises, is a never-failing source of
sanctification. Were it not that we every day bathe in the sacred
fountain of eternal strength we might soon be weak and
irresolute; but fellowship with God renews us in our vigorous
warfare with sin. How is it possible that the doctrines of grace
should suggest sin to men who constantly draw near to God? The
renewed man is also by God's Spirit frequently quickened in
conscience; so that things which heretofore did not strike him as
sinful are seen in a clearer light, and are consequently
condemned. I know that certain matters are sinful to me today
which did not appear so ten years ago: my judgment has, I trust,
been more and more cleared of the blindness of sin. The natural
conscience is callous and hard; but the gracious conscience grows
more and more tender till at last it becomes as sensitive as a
raw wound. He who has most grace is most conscious of his need of
more grace. The gracious are often afraid to put one foot before
another for fear of doing wrong. Have you not felt this holy
fear, this sacred caution? It is by this means that the Holy
Spirit prevents your ever turning your Christian liberty into
licentiousness, or daring to make the grace of God an argument
for folly.

Then, in addition to this,
the good Spirit leads us into high and hallowed intercourse with
God, and I defy a man to live upon the mount with God, and then
come down to transgress like men of the world. If thou hast
walked the palace floor of glory, and seen the King in his
beauty, till the light of his countenance has been thy heaven,
thou canst not be content with the gloom and murkiness of the
tents of wickedness. To lie, to deceive, to feign, as the men of
the world do, will no longer beseem thee. Thou art of another
race, and thy conversation is above them: "Thy speech
betrayeth thee." If thou dost indeed dwell with God, the
perfume of the ivory palaces will be about thee, and men will
know that thou hast been in other haunts than theirs. If the
child of God goes wrong in any degree, he loses to some extent
the sweetness of his communion, and only as he walks carefully
with God does he enjoy full fellowship; so that this rising or
falling in communion becomes a sort of parental discipline in the
house of the Lord. We have no court with a judge, but we have
home with its fatherhood, its smile and its rod. We lack not for
order in the family of love, for our Father dealeth with us as
with sons. Thus, in a thousand ways, all danger of our presuming
upon the grace of God is effectually removed.

VII. THE ENTIRE ELEVATION
OF THE MAN WHO IS MADE A PARTAKER OF THE GRACE OF GOD is also a
special preservative against sin. I venture to say, though it may
be controverted, that the man who believes the glorious doctrines
of grace is usually a much higher style of man than the person
who has no opinion upon the matter. What do most men think about?
Bread-and-butter, house-rent and clothes. But the men who
consider the doctrines of the gospel muse upon the everlasting
covenant, predestination, immutable love, effectual calling, God
in Christ Jesus, the work of the Spirit, justification,
sanctification, adoption, and such like noble themes. Why, it is
a refreshment merely to look over the catalogue of these grand
truths! Others are as children playing with little sand-heaps on
the seashore; but the believer in free grace walks among hills
and mountains. The themes of thought around him tower upward,
Alps on Alps; the man's mental stature rises with his
surroundings, and he becomes a thoughtful being, communing with
sublimities. No small matter this, for a thing so apt to grovel
as the average human intellect. So far as deliverance from mean
vices and degrading lusts must in this way be promoted, I say, it
is no small thing. Thoughtlessness is the prolific mother of
iniquity. It is a hopeful sign when minds begin to roam among
lofty truths. The man who has been taught of God to think will
not so readily sin as the being whose mind is buried beneath his
flesh. The man has now obtained a different view of himself from
that which led him to trifle away his time with the idea that
there was nothing better for him than to be merry while he could.
He says, "I am one of God's chosen, ordained to be his son,
his heir, joint-heir with Jesus Christ. I am set apart to be a
king and priest unto God, and as such I cannot be godless, nor
live for the common objects of life." He rises in the object
of his pursuit: he cannot henceforth live unto himself, for he is
not his own, he is bought with a price. Now he dwells in the
presence of God, and life to him is real, earnest, and sublime.
He cares not to scrape together gold with the muck-rake of the
covetous, for he is immortal, and must needs seek eternal gains.
He feels that he is born for divine purposes, and enquires
"Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do?" He feels that
God has loved him that his love may flow forth to others. God's
choice of any one man has a bearing upon all the rest: he elects
a Joseph that a whole family, a whole nation, nay, the whole
world, may be preserved alive when famine had broken the staff of
bread. We are each one as a lamp kindled that we may shine in the
dark, and light up other lamps.

New hopes come crowding on
the man who is saved by grace. His immortal spirit enjoys
glimpses of the endless. As God has loved him in time, he
believes that the like love will bless him in eternity. He knows
that his Redeemer lives, and that in the latter days he shall
behold him; and therefore he has no fears for the future. Even
while here below he begins to sing the songs of the angels, for
his spirit spies from afar the dawn of the glory which is yet to
be revealed. Thus with joyous heart and light footstep he goes
forward to the unknown future as merrily as to a wedding-feast.

Is there a sinner here, a
guilty sinner, one who has no merit, no claim to mercy whatever;
is there one willing to be saved by God's free grace through
believing in Jesus Christ? Then let me tell thee, sinner, there
is not a word in God's book against thee, not a line or syllable,
but everything is in thy favour. "This is a faithful saying,
and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners," even the chief. Jesus came into the
world to save thee. Only do thou trust him, and rest in him. I
will tell thee what ought to fetch thee to Christ at once, it is
the thought of his amazing love. A profligate son had been a
great grief to his father; he had robbed him and disgraced him,
and at last he ended by bringing his grey hairs with sorrow to
the grave. He was a horrible wretch of a son: no one could have
been more graceless. However, he attended his father's funeral,
and he stayed to hear the will read: perhaps it was the chief
reason why he was there. He had fully made up his mind that his
father would cut him off with a shilling, and he meant to make it
very unpleasant for the rest of the family. To his great
astonishment, as the will was read it ran something like this:
"As for my son Richard, though he has fearfully wasted my
substance, and though he has often grieved my heart, I would have
him know that I consider him still to be my own dear child, and
therefore, in token of my undying love, I leave him the same
share as the rest of his brothers." He left the room; he
could not stand it, the surprising love of his father had
mastered him. He came down to the executor the next morning, and
said, "You surely did not read correctly?" "Yes I
did; there it stands." "Then," he said, "I
feel ready to curse myself that I ever grieved my dear old
father. Oh, that I could fetch him back again!" Love was
born in that base heart by an unexpected display of love. May not
your case be similar? Our Lord Jesus Christ is dead, but he has
left it in his will that the chief of sinners are objects of his
choicest mercy. Dying he prayed, "Father, forgive
them." Risen he pleads for transgressors. Sinners are ever
on his mind: their salvation is his great object. His blood is
for them, his heart for them, his righteousness for them, his
heaven for them. Come, O ye guilty ones, and receive your legacy.
Put out the hand of faith and grasp your portion. Trust Jesus
with your souls, and he will save you. God bless you. Amen.